Blog @ Work

Silly, but I don’t believe in unlucky numbers like 13, but sometimes when I pick a number for the lottery, I do believe in lucky numbers. Other than that it is superstitious nonsense to me, but I know a lot of people do believe in this, so I won’t dismiss it.

I overcame my loneliness this year by falling in love with my new boyfriend. We hit it off immediately and we have been together ever since. Be it online or in real life, we spend as much time as we can together. We are together and not alone anymore. There is a deep sense of belonging.

I thought ice-cream was the best. You can wake me up in the middle of the night for ice cream. All flavors, really. I like to take a walk with my lover and my dog in the early evening and go to the Italian ice cream parlor to have an ice cream. But recently I discovered something I am really thrilled about. Ice coffee. It was very chilled, mushy, hazelnut flavored and sooooo good, it blew my mind. I am a fervent coffee drinker so I enjoyed this treat tremendously. It’s the perfect combination of an ice cream and a coffee. It is my favorite by far.

Yes, I think it's possible to have a strong economy and a healthy environment. The two don't exclude themselves but go hand in hand. It only takes a mental switch to think that way. A healthy environment means taking care of the earth and therefore taking care of pollution and omission. It means taking a closer look at work circumstances for people and take care of them. That all costs money and in the current mind frame that's a bad thing. But when you look closer to the issue at hand it is obvious that a better environment will benefit all in the end.

We think we have a choice now, a healthy economy or a healthy environment. They choose the first option nowadays, but very soon there will be no option left for us than to take care of our environment as well. Hopefully, it won't be too late by then.
Fortunately, there are all sorts of good initiatives already taking place: electric cars, solar panels on rooftops, eating less meat so the issue of cows producing unhealthy waist is diminishing, looking at regional labor where there are regional raw materials at hand and so forth.

It will take a while to get used to the idea that we only have one planet and that we will have to be very careful with the one we've got. In the end, I hope people will see that and come to their senses. A healthy economy means a healthy environment. So we have to divide our waste and recycle as much as we can. We must do something about all the plastics floating in our seas, and take care of our animals, species, and plants. Since mankind is around a lot of animals and species have been eradicated from the earth. That's a shame.

We should take better care of everything. Because we are only travelers on this earth, we don't own it. It's there for our use, but only if we are really careful with it, otherwise we will be distinct as a species soon as well. And we won't want that, now do we?!

I think reviewing and getting reviews is what makes participating on WdC such a great thing. I always was very conscious about letting others read what I had written, but WdC taught me the great benefits of getting reviews and reviewing yourself. It teaches me to look at my own writing from a distance and that way I can become a better writer. Without reviews, you develop a tunnel vision which is never good.

Yes, of course. Everything should be done to lessen dependency on fossil fuels. It increases a positive environmental impact. As soon as people and companies are aware of this the better because there has to be a mind switch on environmental issues. If things don’t change dramatically within a few years all will be in vain for the human species. I hope people realize that.

I discovered this weekend a new kind of lady bug. It has all the makings of a normal lady bug but it cannot fly. It crawls. It just looks like a normal lady bug with red and black dots. I love lady bugs. They remind me of good fortune, and wonders. It always makes my day if I spot one and it brings joy to my heart.

Although I do shop a lot online I don’t think and surely don’t hope that “normal” shopping will ever be replaced. I like to have shops open and available in the streets. It’s lively and vibrant and it makes an area in the center of a city or in shopping malls alive. Without it, the city is dead and abandoned. But that means shops have to do their best to get customers. They have to have an online website apart from the actual physical store. And they have to have a good marketing plan to stay on top of their buyers. Buyers are less loyal to one shop these days, so shops have to have a good strategy in how to keep their clients.

A 16-year old boy may have stones in his pockets, he found in Nature. A 24-year old woman will have an I-phone in her pocket to keep track of all social media and a 76-year old man will have a handkerchief in his pocket to pick and wipe his running nose.

I think the public is so critical these days they will hold people and politicians accountable for freedom of speech. With all the social media in the free world it is hard to silence the ordinary citizen.

Bibliomancy…I love it…so here goes…!

I hear music when I think of the 1,000-year-old pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, known in English as the Way of St. James and in Spanish as the Camino de Santiago. Over 100,000 pilgrims travel to the city each year from points all over Europe and other parts of the world. (Wikipedia). I hear music because this is a sacred road, a sacred pilgrimage, and a very difficult path to walk since I am familiar with walking long distance footpaths these days. Wow, to be able to walk 1454 kilometers, 904 miles is awesome. I heard a story the other day of a Dutch man who wanted to walk this path and had trouble with his Achilles heel like I am having now from my walks during my holiday but kept determent to do so. He kept going but slowly and he continued his trip against all odds. His landlady got a postcard after a few months that he had made it, nonetheless. He had arrived in Santiago the Compostella in Spain. I think this is so awesome and special…to be able to walk all that way, to keep going even in pain and to finish this milestone. Chapeau!!

[From: The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music, edited by Geoffrey Hindley (1965); page56; 4th sentence: By the 12th century it had become so large that it needed two players, as we may see from several paintings and sculptures of this period, especially the glory portal of the cathedral of Santiago the Compostella.]

I find lettuce, cooked chicken, tomatoes, eggs, milk, butter, olives, dried tomatoes, slices dark grain bread, and old cheese in my fridge. So I make myself a really tasty omelet on dark grain bread. Mmmm!!

This reminds me of sweet love poetry. Since I am in love this sentence speaks to my heart. My lover is in real life a man without many words. But he is also a poet so he has surprised me with a few awesome, sweet poems, especially made for me. It touches my heart and soul every time this happens. In the beginning, I was curious when I heard nothing from him through email for say an hour, but then he came up with this beautiful poem. Now I know that when he’s not available for a chat online, he’s creating something beautiful. To be with such a lovely and creative soul is the best that happened to me in a long time. I feel blessed and very happy!

It’s not a question of better or worse, I think. Both states are okay. But there is a difference. Content is a quiet state of mind where as there is more passion, more activity in happy. I prefer happy, being a joyful experience where you want to shout and laugh and scream.

My city The Hague is magnificent. Its skyline is very impressive. There are a lot of nationalities living here and you can shop and go culture at your heart’s content. Since one week I have a movie pass. One month all the movies in two theaters in my city and 41 theaters in the rest of the country for 20 euro. I already went to 6 movies in more than a week. You’ve got the feeling the movies are for free so you can visit day or night at the theater. It’s awesome and it has enriched my life. The Hague is where I was born, and I returned 12 years ago. It’s my city and I love it here. .

I would change the last word of this sentence into ‘fly’. To see the summer sky is poetry, though never in a book it lie-true poems fly. That way I like it better although I don’t agree totally. Poems in a book can be as beautiful as the real experience. I like words sometimes better than real life.

My ideal picnic would be with my lover in the park next to my house. It would be sunny, lots of activities and people in the park. We would bring a blanket, and little snacks and drinks and plenty of water. We would make sure we would bring the newspapers (we are avid newspaper readers) and two books with us. We would pick a spot under some trees in the shade and have a marvelous time. This time I would leave my dog at home because he would bark his little head off every time he spots another dog. That would spoil the fun. So for an hour of 3 or 4, we would be happy in the park. I think I am going to suggest this to him for the weekend of my birthday the end of July. This would be so much fun!!

The Dreamer’s Scent. I dream of my new found lover. Lately, we are weekends together and mostly one day and night during the week. He smells nice, his own scent mixed with douche gel and deodorant. Just a manly smell I like very much. In my dreams, he is with me all the time, so naturally, I miss him when he is not around. It’s funny, but I love to have him around the house although it’s been thirty years of living alone. This time in my life I love it to be together at his or my house. I miss his presence when he is not around. I miss his scent, his face, his body, his wild hair and beautiful blue eyes. I miss his hands on my body. It’s only been two months into the relationship but this time it’s different. This time it’s for keeps.

I created my own holiday only two weeks ago. We went for long distance walks for 6 days in my own country. Daytrips of 15 to 20 kilometers per day with a little day rucksack, walking shoes and plenty of water. We had the route in little booklets with us. They were marvelous routes and we discovered once more how beautiful The Netherlands really is when you step aside from the beaten path. Nature is gorgeous, even in a small country like The Netherlands. We went by train to our destination, did the walk, passed quaint little villages along the way and returned to another railway station where we took the train back to my place. It was very nice and we had a very good time. This was the first holiday in two years for me, so I was happy to have a real break.

It’s been a while since I have danced with my writing. The last few months were busy writing for Rising Stars project (assignments) and before that a Horizon Winter course. I think it’s been 6 months or so since I took part in contests and wrote anything substantial besides blogs. Oops, has it been that long? My plan was to start writing again for two longer stories during this summer, but I think GOT got in the way. So in August, I don’t have time either. Perhaps later. I hope to refine my blogging capacity a bit in the coming period. My main man Fivesixer is my main example, my model for writing blogs. I really wished I could write like him, his blogs, although not frequent in numbers, are awesome; they really dance off the page. They are witty and very funny. Hopefully one day my blogs will dance too, although of corse I have to develop my own voice in blogging. But I am still a beginner, so there is hope my writing and my blogging will improve. And perhaps, one day they will dance.

I agree partly with this statement. Indeed, real contentment comes from within, but there are parameters outside us that contribute to the contentment. Outside influences are of importance in how you feel, how you behave, how you interact with others in the world. Changing and controlling outside or even inside is both difficult but not impossible. Sometimes it’s better to change things, outside or in, but sometimes it’s best to leave it be and watch what’s happening without so much interfering. It all depends on the situation.

No, not every hurt can be a lesson. You have to open yourself for the lesson in the hurt. Sometimes the hurt is so overwhelming you cannot go passed it, and therefore you cannot see the lesson. But it’s there every time for you to find it.

I am very much afraid there’s nothing that can be done to prevent these incidents of violence. Illegal and legal weapons are very easy to come by, especially in the US. Because of the dominant lobby for guns in the US, it is hard to ban handguns, since everybody is allowed to have one. But I am sure there are things that can and should be done with those pieces of destruction. First, you should do something about the legislation concerning weaponry. It’s better to sign papers when you buy something, that way everybody has to put a name on paper to make it legal. Second, there should be rules if you want to buy a handgun. All of this to make people conscious of the fact that it’s not normal to own or use a gun. But if people want to do bad things, they can and will do them, no matter what. Apparently, this incident was related to gang-shooting and drive-by-shooting of gang members. There is not much you can do about that.

In my country, it is not allowed for citizens to own or use guns except when part of a shooting association and then there are rules and check-ups. But in the case of Tristan Vander Vlist, a young guy with a history of mental illness, he could purchase such a license from a shooting association although he should have been prohibited due to his history of mental illness. He had a legal gun and shot a lot of people dead in a shopping mall in Alphen aan de Rijn, a few years back. This should have been prevented by the police when checking his papers for the gun, they didn’t do a good job and he slipped through the maze.

You cannot prevent actions like this; you can make it more difficult to own a gun. But since that’s not going to happen incidents like above will continue to happen, unfortunately.

When I was twelve years old we went camping in Belgium. We borrowed the tents from my father’s brother and his family. They left Opklapbeek in Belgium; we came to the camping and took over. We were with five, my father, mother and three kids. I can remember the weather was very bad. At one time we had to cling to the tent to prevent it from blowing away in the wind and the rain. But it was a wonderful time with lots of friends and lots of fun. One time we had a friendly soccer game on the grass. One of the boys lost his contact lens on the grass. We all helped to look for it and believe it or not, we found the contact lens on the grass. The whole camping celebrated. We also learned how to play Canasta, a game of cards. To this day I sometimes play this game, we learned so many years ago. It was a good holiday, one of the few. So I remember it well.

My sister looking through paint. My sister is a painter. She made the most beautiful paintings in her early years. Today, she has some difficulties with painting again, since she has some personal problems, one of them is that she doesn’t have space in her house to paint. She has a really tiny house. But she is trying to do some sketching and tries to paint outdoors at a class in town. I really hope she is picking up again painting very soon since she was very good at it. And I love to see her fulfilling her potential again, I love her very much!

Philip Michael Ondaatje, (born 12 September 1943), is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, novelist, editor and filmmaker. He is most famous for his movie The English Patient. I really loved that film. Ondaatje is the one Canadian I recognized from the list on Wikipedia. He has done a lot apparently for searching and fostering new Canadian writers. So he would fit in nicely in my hometown The Hague where I would try to persuade him to set up a think-tank for upcoming Dutch writers. We have a few writers’ festivals and film festivals in The Hague, he would fit in nicely.

Yes, I definitely think there is a different emotion involved with looking at a problem or looking for a solution. My first intention will always be looking at the problem since that is in your face. It will stir up a lot of negative emotions, like feelings of inadequacy, hurt or dismay. But focusing on the solution will have positive feelings of hope, energy and such things. For example, I have a slight problem with my Achilles heel. It is hurting because I walked long distance footpaths for 6 days. I now have trouble walking and I am limping. My first reaction was very negative: I am limping, I am in pain, I cannot walk again this coming period, what about my new walking shoes, what about my plans for walking with my new love this coming month, etc. etc. I was feeling all grumpy and responded not well. But focusing on the solution, a friend helped me with taping in the Achilles heel so it would benefit while walking, and she encouraged me to not feeling sad again. My boyfriend told a story about a man with the same Achilles heel problems, who just took it easy for a while but finished the route to Compostella in Spain, nevertheless. Looking at a solution is so much more positive and filled with possibilities…it really lifted me up and took me out of my blues. I want to try to look at the solution more instead of looking at the problem. That’s better for my well-being.

When feeling a little under the weather I always try to make a grog. That is a lemon squeezed with hot water and a paracetamol. It helps all the time.

A bunch of purple lilacs. Lilacs remind me of the front garden of my home in childhood. It had lilacs and a Laburnum watereri Vossii as we call the Golden rain tree. Purple and yellow, two beautiful colors. I love trees and flowers and all those fresh Nature colors. They are so beautiful.

China Town. I love Chinese food and Indonesian food. All Asian food actually, with their rice and vegetables and beef dishes. The aroma of their food is so good, thanks to the herbs and spices. It always reminds me of my (Indonesian) heritage. Although my mother never taught me to cook properly I have her big Indonesian cookbook. So my plan is to start cooking from that cookbook somewhere soon. Usually, I go for takeout or let the Chinese deliver at my home. Very convenient.

The girl in the fish tank, sleeping. I kinda liked this pic, used it for a story a long time ago but decided to change the pic again. But it’s nice and reminded me of earlier years doing homework, staying up very late to study for finals or psychology exams or whatever. Falling asleep over books. What a drag! Those were the days. I started smoking during those finals in high school. I had the (wrong) notion it would help my studies if I smoked during the intervals I had time to rest. So I started at the age of 16/17 while studying for my first high school diploma. I graduated and worked for a year while living together with my then-boyfriend. I started school again after that one year so I could go to university and study psychology. Which I did. Those times lasted three years, then I quit the boyfriend and the studies. I only picked them up years later (the study, not the boyfriend ) and finished university at the age of 31. Since I worked all those years in between and during my university years I had no loan, so I was not in debt for thousands of euros. Very grateful for that because it can ruin your start as a professional to have a debt that high. I always was an easy learner and student, studying came natural to me. So I became a Theoretical Psychologist, the philosopher among psychologists. I still benefit from that study. It taught me to write essays and to do research which I still do today to some extent. It introduced me to social sciences and philosophy for which I am grateful.

The city of Thorn, a fata morgana. Today, my boyfriend starts his 5 days long distance walk on his own. He left for a three-hour train ride to Thorn, also known as the White City. A city in the south of the Netherlands. After this three hours trip, he had to walk 20 kilometers before reaching his destination for the night. But he emailed just now that there were problems in Rotterdam, the train had stranded and it was unsure if there would be train traffic possible at all today. So I am waiting anxiously what he will do…continue his trip with great difficulties or return to me and start again tomorrow. I hope for the latter. But I will just wait and see what happens. In either case, it is really unfortunate to start his first day of his trip this way. You never know what will happen on the railroad in this country.

The current temperature today is 26 degrees Fahrenheit. A nice temperature. Taken this to the extreme as was last week, it would be 31 degrees in the sun. And very bright. Last week I walked 75 kilometers in 5 days in the heat. It was lovely in the dunes, extreme hot but with a nice wind. We walked and enjoyed our time outdoors. Unfortunately, I had a blister due to too small walking shoes. So I bought new walking shoes during the weekend. Last Monday I walked with those and my feet were okay. Very expensive shoes, but I had to buy them, and they will last probably for years so it’s a good buy. I love high temperatures since they are rare in my country. I hope this summer will be a good one with those high temperatures.

In writing on history, you try to work through the past and therefore go past the past into the present and sometimes into the future. You evolve and get rid of the past. I like this quote. You can learn from the past and resolve any possible conflicts or problems that way.

The fish and mammals caller. He was all alone on the beach. He lived there among the surf and turf of the shore. The only connection he had was with the sea animals. Every morning he went up on the beach and called out to his friends, blowing his whistle. They always came within minutes, jumping, swimming, calling their little noises to say hello to the boy in the water. Then they disappeared again for hours. Till the next morning when he called them again. That was his life, and he liked it that way.

The old bike. My boyfriend has a bike to go to work. But it’s an old beast. It’s moaning and groaning all the way, every day. It’s old and worn-out. Luckily there is a bike plan at work. He can buy a new bike and then there is this financial plan to work with so he can have all the benefits. The bike is much cheaper that way and will be paid through his salary and vacation pay. He hardly will notice he bought one. But my boyfriend is a troublesome decider so he is thinking of all the bike models he can choose from, but he has not decided yet which one. This can take a while before the new bike will arrive. In the meantime, he has to push his bike up the hill and ride very carefully. The old beast will only travel so far.